August 5, 2011

Tom Van Riper writes in Forbes that, despite the fact that the Barclays Center is designed for basketball, meaning bad sightlines for hockey and a capacity of some 14,000 seats, it's more than likely the arena would become home to the Islanders when the Nassau Coliseum lease expires in three years.
...

The Islanders would be a tenant, so few if any revenue from suite sales and naming rights, Van Riper notes, but the cost would be fixed, the arena's accessible, and then there's "NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman’s preference for market stability."

It didn't convince deMause, but...

In his Field of Schemes blog, Neil deMause linked to Van Riper's piece but was skeptical, writing:

So: Brooklyn Islanders, possible? Yes. Likely? Unless both Chales Wang and the NHL decide that the Brooklyn market is so lucrative that it's worth playing in a substandard arena, don't hold your breath.

But deMause didn't directly address the issue cable TV rights, so let's consider it an open issue. He had previously written:

Add in that being even on the outskirts of the NY media market is worth a bunch in cable and sponsorship dollars - or would be if anyone started paying attention to the Islanders again - and it's hard to see where they'd move to that would be an improvement on staying put and throwing another Nassau arena plan at the wall to see if this one sticks.